Location: "Everybody sounds like Meryl Streep with a gun to their head."

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I'm buying the Bears this year. Hard. I wouldn't be surprised if they won the NFC.

Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall and Jeremy Bates reunited is good for all three parties. Cutler gets his #1 WR back, Marshall gets a real QB and Bates is the guy who coached them to career years back in 2008. Love that.

But then they also added Alshon Jeffery. I'm a bigger proponent of Jeffery than most. I see him as a Vincent Jackson type receiver if he stays in shape. Build up vertical speed and when the ball is in the air, it might as well be his. Great hands, great ball skills. A vertical threat like Jeffery with a guy like Marshall is dangerous. They're both huge and they compliment each other well. Add in Earl Bennett, Devin Hester and Dane Sanzenbacher and I think the Bears' receiving core is quite good. Plus I think Kellen Davis and Evan Rodriguez could be a nice little TE combo. Their passing game should be much improved.

Plus their running attack with Matt Forte and Michael Bush is impressive as well. Is there a better 1-2 punch at running back in the NFL? Arian Foster and Ben Tate is the only one that comes to mind as clearly better. Maybe Fred Jackson and CJ Spiller. But none of that matters because regardless of whether they're the best 1-2 punch or the 5th best 1-2 bunch, point is that they're really good and they compliment the passing game nicely.

Aside from the huge, gaping hole at LT, their offensive line is a bit better than advertised too. Williams-Garza-Rachal-Carimi isn't so terrible. Still bad but its not the "Oh my god, the Bears are going to just get demolished" problem it's being made out to be. I mean the Giants won a superbowl with Diehl-Boothe-Baas-Snee-McKenzie and that was pretty awful.

And that defense is always good and they added Shea McClellin, Kelvin Hayden and Geno Hayes. And I'm expecting a good year out of Stephen Paea and Chris Conte too.

9 won't contend for the division. The division winner will have a minimum of 12 wins and a first round bye.

NFCE teams tend to cancel each other out, although sometimes they get swept usually Dallas - Eagles or Skins - Giants. This yr. they get the AFCN, & the Steelers & Ravens + the much improved Bengals won't be easy.

I'd feel pretty safe in predicting the Packers with around 13 wins, the Lions around 11 wins and the Bears in the 10 win area. However, when teams are this good and this close, the order they finish is really up in the air.